Cardinal commemorates martyrdom, persecution of Eastern Catholics faithful to pope

Vatican City, May 2, 2025 /
17:14 pm

On the seventh day of the Novendiales Masses for Pope Francis, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti recalled the extreme sacrifice Catholics from the Eastern Catholic Churches have made to remain faithful to the successor of St. Peter, the pope.

“In the past, Eastern Catholics have agreed to adhere to full communion with the successor of the Apostle Peter, whose body rests in this basilica. And it was in the name of this union that they bore witness, often in blood or persecution, to their faith,” Gugerotti said at a Mass on May 2 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Eastern Catholics, “in part now reduced, in numbers and in strength but not in faith, from wars and intolerance,” he continued, “remain firmly clinging to a sense of catholicity that does not exclude but rather implies the recognition of their specificity.”

The 69-year-old Italian cardinal was head of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches since 2022 and had extensive experience serving as an apostolic nuncio to countries with many Eastern Catholics and Orthodox, including Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

In his homily at the Mass for Pope Francis’ repose, part of the Church’s nine days of mourning, Gugerotti pointed out how Eastern Catholics have “enriched the treasury of Christian theology with a contribution as original as it is, to a large extent, unknown by us Westerners.”

He noted that some members and leaders of the Eastern Catholic Churches were present at the Mass and thanked them for “agreeing to enrich the catholicity of the Church with the variety of their experiences, their cultures, but above all their very rich spirituality.”

“Children of the beginnings of Christianity, they have carried in their hearts, together with their Orthodox brothers and sisters, the flavor of the Lord’s land, and some even continue to speak the language that Jesus Christ spoke,” he said.

Gugerotti said he believes Pope Francis, “who taught us to love the diversity and richness of expression of all that is human,” is rejoicing to see Catholics of different rites joining together in prayer.

The cardinal also called on Catholics everywhere to recommit themselves to helping Christians forced to leave their ancient homelands, such as those in the Holy Land. 

We should “sensitize ourselves, as our pope had wished, to welcome them and help them in our lands to preserve the specificity of their Christian contribution, which is an integral part of our being the Catholic Church,” he underlined.

Gugerotti invited those present at Mass to unite themselves to the Eucharist, “even in our aridities, distractions, continuous loss of focus on the only thing necessary.”

He ended his homily with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, written by St. Simeon the New Theologian, an Eastern Father of the Church, and addressing his brother cardinals said: “As the days become ever closer when we will be called upon to choose the new pope, let us place on our lips the invocation of the Holy Spirit.”

“Come, true light; come, eternal life; come, hidden mystery; come, nameless treasure; come, ineffable reality; come, inconceivable person; come, happiness without end; come, light without sunset; come, infallible expectation of all who are to be saved. Come, you who has longed and longs for my miserable soul. Come, thou, the one, to me, alone, for thou seest that I am alone; that seeing thee in eternity I, dead, may live; possessing thee, I, poor, may ever be rich and richer than kings; I, who eating and drinking of thee, and clothing myself at all times with thee, pass from delight to delight to inexpressible goods, for thou art all good and all glory and all delight, and it is to thee that glory belongs, O holy, consubstantial, and life-giving Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”